VOTE for Reproductive Freedom, 2022 billboard, by Lena Wolff & Hope Meng
VOTE for the Freedom to Read, 2024, Lena Wolff & Hppe Meng
Project History
Berkeley Stands United Against Hate, offset posters, 2017
Art for Democracy began with the design of a simple poster reading, Berkeley Stand United Against Hate, made in collaboration with Lexi Visco (of Companion Platform) and printed over 200,000 times for 10 Bay Area cities since their initial release in 2017. The project has since evolved into a widespread public art campaign largely focused on promoting voter engagement for reasons related to the critical issues of our day — for reproductive freedom, gun control, LGBTQ rights, racial justice and the health of the planet at large, rather than a single candidate. Through this approach the project adds to existing community-led voter engagement efforts and is welcomed in public spaces like restaurants, libraries, bookstores, and cafes.
During the lead up to the 2020 general election, images from the VOTE campaign, made in collaboration with Hope Meng, spread across the country in the form of free posters, billboards, downloadable files and digital images that were shared publicly in storefront windows and on social media. To date over 90,000 posters from the VOTE series have been distributed for free in over 100 cities in 28 states, with a strategic emphasis in swing states. In 2022, the VOTE for Reproductive Freedom billboard was installed in 8 states ahead of the midterm elections.
Since their release, the United Against Hate posters and VOTE posters have been collected by SFMOMA, the Oakland Museum of California and the San Francisco History Collection of the SF Public Library. On November 12th, 2019, Mayor Jesse Arreguin named “Lena Wolff and Miriam Klein Stahl Day” in the city of Berkeley, in part for this project that uses art to promote civic engagement. The city of Berkeley also launched an annually celebrated “United Against Hate Week” based on the phrase of the first poster made in 2017.
